Enigmatic Fears: A Klaus Mikaelson Story {7}

Chapter 74: Unconditional Love

"No, no absolutely not!" Caroline snapped. "They are children."

"They're also siphoners." I countered. "This is what they were born to do. Siphon magic from one thing—"

"And put it in another." Their mother finished.

"And after they siphon it from Grace..." I began quietly.

"...They put it in me." My husband finished, causing a pang in my heart.

"That's great." Caroline replied sarcastically. "And then you can practice mindful meditation whilst we just cross our fingers and hope that you don't develop some sort of temper. Oh, wait."

"Do you remember when you and your friends threatened to chain me up, drown me in cement and drop me in the deepest ocean?" He asked her.

"Cuz I do." I remarked resentfully.

"Blossom..."

"I'll stop."

"Caroline, I mean for your daughters to put the magic in me, you can make good on that threat." He explained.

"Fiore will save you, she always does, she—"

"I won't." I told her, swallowing thickly. "I promise you that I will not fight you on this."

"How are you okay with this?" She asked me in shock.

"I'm not." I answered. "But I can't put it in me, and I can't let my daughter die either. But I promise you, I will not endanger yours."

"But—"

"Caroline please." I told her solemnly. "I am begging you. Please."

~Grace POV~

Grace sat at a table with her uncle now at the restaurant he had suggested, waiting for him to try and make a case for her father. But when he didn't, she grew tired of the silence and took the matter into her own hands.

"You know, if you're here to tell me about my dad's heart of gold, this is literally the worst spot considering that inside there's a plaque dedicated to some woman he killed in a moonstone ritual." Grace told him.

"The Mystic Grill just so happens to be located opposite this." Elijah began. "Take a look at the storefront across the street with the charcoal awning. That piece of land use to be our home. Go on a little further and you might just be lucky enough to stumble upon your mother's little cave."

"That was your home?" She asked, a little dismayed that it had been built over.

"Mhm." Her uncle continued. "The smell of it still haunts me to this day. The burning wood, the crushed flowers, the berries. Your father was incessantly paining back in those days. Mixing, searching for brighter reds, deeper blues. Used to wake me in the middle of the night, just to show me the colour that he would swear he himself had invented. I remember the first time that he showed me a turquoise."

The two of them shared a fond smile at her father's naiveite as Grace couldn't help btu be intrigued by tales of her father. But then her uncle's face grew darker as fear stirred in his eyes.

"It was also the first time I smelled blood." The smile left her too now as her uncle furthered his story. "You see, when Mikael had found Niklaus fashioning a paintbrush from a small branch, he took that branch—he struck my brother across the face."

"What did you do?" Grace asked.

"Niklaus asked me to run away with him but I told him that I could never leave Rebekah and Kol at the mercy of Mikael." Elijah replied. "So we stayed. And it was, of course, a mistake. We should've run away together, but...your father couldn't go alone."